Procedural Generation
Procedural generation is one of my favorite topics when I'm talking about suggestions I'd like to see. Sadly, it isn't brought up much, so not many people know of what it would help with Minecraft. Here is a list of things procedural generation could do. Terrain Generation Basically, if certain features were added to the terrain generator, it could greatly increase its usefulness. These things are different attributes and "blendings" of biomes. * Noise scale-a scale that decides the ferocity of biomes, which has effects that vary from different biomes and different possible ranges in different biomes. For instance, in deserts noise scales would have relatively low ranges, with the lowest being flattest and the highest being more duney and have a few cliffs and ravines. * Vegetation- this decides how many trees, grass blocks, etc. can be in a biome. * Ore scales-these decide the rarity of each ore and the vein size in a biome. With more attributes like these, biomes would be almost completely randomized from place to place. Sub-biomes that are procedurally generated based on attributes from parent biomes would be a great implementation. For instance, if three parent biomes are mountainous, the main noise scale for the biome will be quite high. Grass colors will blend into a collective tone. Sub-biomes would even be able to create more sub-biomes. How Procedural Generation could Even Affect Mobs Okay, so Mobs are one of my favorite parts of the game due to their versatility. Bats can be used for their erratic behavior in redstone contraptions, creepers for explosion-free TNT explosions, the like. So here are a few ways mobs could vary, and a couple possible ways entirely new mobs could be implemented using a "Mob Generator." Okay, so each mob would now have a variety of statistics. These would be speed, strength, certain abilities, statistics and adding to those abilities, etc. We'll use the common zombie as an example, although realistically every mob would have certain stats. These are what I could think of, but I'm sure there would be others. DISCLAIMER:This is in no way complete or perfect. This is just a concept for a Custom Mob Generator (CMG). The CMG would perhaps be a high point in Minecraft procedural generation. I'm just going to provide the steps it takes to create the mob. Model The model is the first thing the CMG would do. * 1.Decide if it is bipedal. If not, is it animalistic? If so, is it humanoid? Continue with these trains of thought. * Decide the length, number, and abilities of appendages and model parts. For instance, decide on a body-this will do nothing but be the center of gravity. Eventually, you may get swinging appendages that can break through blocks and whatnot. * Decide the overall size in comparison to the player. Behavior This is simple. Hostile, neutral, or passive? However, there are a few branching behaviors. * Hunter-This is an offshoot of Hostile. Basically, these mobs will keep track of which chunks you visit most, and which areas in those chunks you visit most out of those. It also takes the time to get to know certain traits about you, and adapts to those. For instance, it may track using subtle clues what armor enchants you might have, what weapon enchants, which mobs you prioritize when fighting, etc. This trait is mainly for smaller mobs. * Flee-This is an offshoot of Passive, and it's essentially like the Rabbit's AI. Typically with small mobs, but can also be used for larger and midsize mobs. * Track-This is an offshoot of Neutral. They track your actions, and decide if you're worth/should be worth killing. They also use this to calculate how much firepower they should waste on the player. Those are just a few examples, and more could be added. Abilities This section attaches different abilities to different appendages, or the mob as a whole. For instance, one appendage on the mob's back could poison the player and explode on impact with the ground. This section is kind of hard to explain, so I'll leave it like that. Texture Basically, the CMG looks at all of the traits and decides on appropriate textures. For instance, search and destroy mobs may have an evil red glow in their eyes and animated red phosphorescent lights up and down their back. Minor things like that. Closure of this section I'll leave it at that. It will definitely need some tweaking to make the mobs look good and not be hilariously under or overpowered, but yeah. Once this mob is created, it could be used in a dungeon, as a species specific to one jungle of all the jungles in your world, a species specific to your world only, etc. You could, if you so desired, use these traits in a new block much like a command block to make your own custom mobs, model and all. Enchantments and Treasure Items Enchantments and Treasure Items are another thing that could serve to have a Procedural Generation overhaul. I think this is going to be the last section in the post, so I intend to make it a good one. So, we all know of the enchanted book so many of us long so much to find-for instance, for one it may be a Sharpness V Fire Aspect II book. For another it may be Protection IV Unbreaking III. It varies from person to person. But what if those books were to become rarer? People would be upset, correct? However, they could be replaced with something completely unique and impossible to find anywhere else. Enter Procedural Enchantments. Here, I will list a few examples of what could be found. I'm honestly not sure how feasible this is or how it would work, but it's worth a shot. Right? * Starshot-This could be a bow enchantment that, upon hit of an opponent, send a shower of explosive stars to their location. * Groundburst-This could be an axe enchantment that, upon right click, allows you to smash the ground creating an AOE attack. * Greek Fire-A Flint and Steel enchant that makes red fire. This fire spreads at alarming rates across any surface (even water) except for sand. Bottling sand and throwing it at Greek Fire will remove some fire and slow its spread back into the area, allowing you to throw even more sand. * Lightslash-A sword enchant that allows you to pull off combos in the form of slashes of light. To perform these, you might have to click at the exact right time. Those were my examples, and hopefully they are feasible. I know that I'd really like to send my opponents away with an AOE attack... New items could also be implemented with their own special abilities. I'm not just talking Totems, either-transportation, weapons, tools, the like. Okay, so how would this be implemented? I think it could work in this way: 1.Decide what the item is. Transportation, tool, weapon, armor? What is it? 2.Decide how it is obtained. Does it come from the snowy villages in the mountains as a top class Hiker trade (Hiker is just a thing I made up that could come from the CMG)? Is it obtained from the fiery pits of the Nether? 3.What does it do? If it's a weapon, does it have an AOE attack? Does it create an explosion upon hit? It it's transpiration, what does it transport you across? Slopes? Snow? Snowy slopes (i.e. A sled)? 4.Texture and name the item. If it's an AOE blunt weapon, it could be named the Warhammer and have two engraved slabs of iron on either side of a reinforced stick. Here is what could be created based on the steps above. 1.Weapon. 2.Procedurally generated underground dungeon mob that spawns with the item. 3.AOE attack and the ability to smash through walls. 4.Warhammer with the example above. These items could be unique loot, mob drops, villager trades, anything! I hope you enjoyed my idea, and I understand it may not be the most feasible for right this moment, and would take an exceptionally long time to program. However, if this were to be implemented, I feel Minecraft would be an even better game to play. Category:Sendineis Category:Customization